February 17, 192 i] 



NATURE 



815 



thoroughly every section of the bee-keeping industry; 

 its function would be to advise the Ministry on all 

 apicultural matters, including the question of legisla- 

 tion respecting bee diseases. In view of the need for 

 economy and for the postponement of legislation, it 

 will be necessary to delay the formation of this Com- 

 mittee. In the meantime, it is hoped that bee- 

 keepers will take steps to organise themselves in 

 order to arrive at a means of expressing an agreed 

 opinion on the measures to be taken for the protec- 

 tion and furtherance of the industry. Arrangements 

 for the examination of diseased bees no longer exist 

 at the Department of Comparative .\natomy. The 

 Museum, Oxford. 'Pending the appointment by the 

 Ministry of a bacteriologist to undertake such work, 

 Dr. J. Rennie has kindly consented to carry out 

 examinations and to furnish reports to the bee-keepers 

 concerned. In future, therefore, specimens, together 

 with the name and address of the sender, should be 

 sent to Dr. J. Rennie, Marischal College, University 

 of Aberdeen. 



Sir Robert Morxk, President of the Board of 

 Trade; in opening on February lo the Efficiency Exhibi- 

 tion organised by the Daily Mail at Olympia, referred 

 to the importance of science and research to industry. 

 In the past we had been too much accustomed to 

 develop business without regard for the sciences or 

 arts ; now that attitude is passing away, and the 

 sciences, arts, and industry are working well together. 

 .\s examples of the success which has attended the 

 ro-ordination of effort, Sir Robert mentioned the 

 Dorman appliances for the transmission of wave- 

 energy through water, and the progress which has 

 been made in preser\-ing the health of the nation. 

 We are compelled to defer an account of some of the 

 exhibits of scientific interest until next week, but wish 

 now to direct particular attention to the stand 

 organised by London University, on which Prof, 

 l-'heming h.is arranged a number of the original valves 

 and lamps usf<l by him when he was evolving the 

 thermionic valve. The series enables a view to be 

 obtained of the genesis of on« of the most valuable 

 (if modern inventions, which was itself the outcome 

 i)f purely scientific research. 



Sib Ernest Shackleto.s, the Times announces, is 

 planning a two years' expedition to .Arctic regions, 

 :ind proposes to leave England in May or June next, 

 :iccompanied by a dozen men chosen chiefly from 

 those who accompanied him on former expeditions, 

 fie proposes to sail fur Hudson's Bay, where 150 dogs 

 will lie embarked, and then to proceed, via Baffin's 

 Bay, through Lancaster Sound to Axel Hciberg 

 Land. The passage of Lanca.ster Sound and Barrow 

 Strait and the course lo be followed to the north- 

 ward must depend largely on ice conditions. The 

 main object of the expedition is said to be to explore 

 the region between .\xel Heiberg and the Parry 

 Islands. Parts of this area were explored betuviccn 

 1898 and 1903 by Otto Sverdrup's expedition in the 

 h'ram, when surveys were made by G. Isachsen of 

 ihe coasts of Axel Heibcrg, Ellcf Ringncs, and 

 Anuind Ringnrs Ijinds. Stefansson, travelling from 

 Prince Patrick Island, visited the region in 1915 and 

 NO. 2677, VOL. 106] 



1916, and discovered two new islands in the Gustav 

 -Vdolf Sea and one in the Prince Gustav Sea, besides 

 finding that Ellef Ringnes I-and is in reality two 

 islands. The American Crocker Land Expedition under 

 Mr. D. B. Macmillan in 1916 reached King Christian 

 Island, travelling south-westward from Ellesmere 

 Land. .\ great deal of work, however, remains to 

 be done, and there is little doubt that Sir Ernest 

 Shackleton intends to push eastward into the un- 

 known Beaufort Sea, whene land possibly exists, 

 although Peary's Crocker Land has been disproved and 

 Stefansson has found a relatively narrow continental 

 shelf. It is reported that Sir Ernest Shackleton has 

 bought the Norwegian whaling vessel Foca I., which 

 will shortly leave Tromso for England. For some 

 years this vessel has been used in carrying stores and 

 jnen to Spitsbergen for a Norwegian mining company. 



Sir Lynden M.vcassev in his address on February 1 1 

 to the Institute of Industrial .Xdministration upon 

 present-day industrial psychology attributed our pre- 

 sent industrial discontent (i) to the failure of Capital 

 to give sufficient attention to the question of adminis- 

 tration, and (ii) to the lack of economic information, 

 both general and particular to their respective indus- 

 tries, among the workers. He pleaded for a re- 

 valuation of the factors of production so as to reach 

 a nobler conception of the responsibilities and possi- 

 bilities of administration. It will ba generally agreed 

 that in the past far too much has been left to chance, 

 and that the time has come when this side of our 

 industrial life must be completely overhauled. There 

 may, perhaps, be less general agreement with Sir 

 Lynden 's view that a second condition of securing 

 efficiency in production is that Labour shall be re- 

 g.irded as entitled to "know the facts," obtained from 

 an efficient costing system, about the industries in 

 which it is engaged. Yet facts of this kind have 

 infinitely greater weight than an unsupported state- 

 ment of the management in which, unfortunately, the 

 men have probably little or no faith. Sir Lynden is 

 inclined to underestimate the extent to which welfare 

 work is regarded with suspicion, and his suggestion 

 for its extension will meet with considerable criticism 

 from those who are demanding that they shall be 

 allowed an increased share in all branches of manage. 

 ment. 



ThoL'GH the various British firms whit h are -.|Mrialis. 

 ing in the manufacture of organic research chemicals 

 continue to add from time to time to the range of 

 products made, their lists are still far behind those 

 issued by the German firms before the war in the 

 variety and complexity of organic chemicals offered. 

 The slow progress made is due to difficulties with 

 which all chemists have become familiar since 19 14, 

 and not the least of these is the uncertainty of the 

 Government policy tow.irds the fine chemical industry 

 as a whole. Meanwhile, research work must go on, 

 and since the date of the Sankcy judgment research 

 chemists have again begun to make use of German 

 sources of supply, which, it may be added, arc no 

 longer so abundant, cheap, and various as they were 

 in 1914, though they appear to be rapidly improving. 

 As it seemed possible that the Dyestiiffs (Import 



